‘Tis the Season for Kicking Butt

While many people mistakenly excuse lack of productivity during the holiday period, NOW is the time when you can get out in front and gain some serious strides on the competition.

When I was in real estate, most of my colleagues went into hibernation mode in December. Since many people do not buy or sell houses around the holiday season, they rationalized taking it easy—big mistake! I did exactly the opposite, kicked it up a notch, and seized a huge market advantage.

Three Ways to Get a Jump on Your Competition in December:

1 – Fill up your January calendar—This was my greatest advantage. While my real estate colleagues weren’t interested in taking meetings to list a house or engage in purchasing one during the holiday season, I prospected vigorously, focused on one goal—setting appointments for every time slot I had available in January. In fact, people are more likely to set appointments for January in December than they might be in January (hey, that’s NEXT year).

When my competition woke up Jan. 2, they were starting at zero, with an empty appointment book. The first 30 days of the year I would out-list and out-sell my closest competitors 5-to-1 because of the aggressive work I did in December. This major leap in front of my competition and the momentum it created made it nearly impossible for them to ever catch me throughout the entire year.

2 – Cultivate your relationships—The holiday season is a great time to nurture your important professional relationships and your personal ones. Here are a few ways to do it:

Host a client-appreciation cocktail reception.

Invite important contacts along to events you are already hosting or attending.

Send a personalized holiday card with an enclosed gift card.

Drop by with a token of holiday cheer and appreciation.

Bring lunch for their staff.

Key: Keep it personal and rooted in gratitude and holiday cheer. Don’t make it promotional or agenda-driven. Your only goal is to make friends and foster a caring relationship.

3 – Ready, Aim… December is the perfect time to get yourself organized, set your goals and refine your strategic plan. Get everything set so you can hit the ground at a full sprint on Jan. 2.

Organize your prospect list. Pull together all the contact data and history. Research your key prospects so you can better connect your product or service with their plans, needs and objectives in the coming year.

Purge and organize your office, filing systems and car. Clear the backlog of clutter and disarray. Get your systems streamlined and in order. Make sure your operational machine can hit on all cylinders when the gun goes off starting the New Year.

Dust off and review your business plan. Transfer it into a sales, marketing and quarterly, monthly and weekly operational plans. Line out (list) all the dots of your plan so you can focus solely on connecting them (executing) when you wake up in the New Year.